Night City Legends

by DrunkenFicker

2074, Naruto awakens to find himself in a world much stranger than his own. One with no place for heroes, only dead legends. He'll find his place among the city and carve out a path of his own to become Night City's own living Legend... that is, so long as he doesn't go screaming over the edge. Story will cover Edgerunners Anime and Cyberpunk2077 Act 1 Complete. Act 2 in progress.

16. C16: Embed That Code - I'm Chippin in!

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Night City Legends

Act 2: Running along the Edge

Chapter Sixteen: Embed That Code - I'm Chippin In!

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Looking down at his hands, Rico clenched and unclenched hands with a frown as they trembled. A worrying symptom of over chipping chrome or even an onset of cyberpsychosis that would worry most were it to happen to them.

"Still won't stop?" He heard Ortiz ask as she walked into the room, holding a pair of ice cold brosephs from her fridge and his pain meds while the tv on the wall played a RealMeat commercial.

"Fucking fingers won't stop twitching… must be nerve damage." He huffed, clenching his fists and watching how they stopped, "but it's only when they relax,"

Sitting on her couch, still very sore and healing from that gonk shit Faraday pulled, Rico accepted the brosephs from her as she sat down next to him. He set hers down on the coffee table and sipped it while she prepared his pain medicine freshly delivered to him by an old choomba.

"Can't say I don't enjoy those twitchy fingers," she grinned while opening the bottle and pulling out a freshly rolled ball of black tarry rez and slapping it into a prepared water bong on the table in front of her.

Rico snorted next to her as she leaned back next to him, blowing smoke into the air as she passed it to him. "You would,"

She nodded rapidly at that, holding back a harsh cough as he copied her earlier action and filled his lungs to the max with rezzin smoke. "Those magic fingers got an upgrade," she giggled, "those twitches leave me trembling,"

He leaned back into the couch and she wiggled closer to him, carefully leaning her head on his shoulder while being careful not to bump his still sore arm too much. "Just hoping that this is as bad as it'll get." He grumbled, blowing a smoke ring into the air as she placed a comforting hand on his leg.

"Don't let it brother you choomba," she told him softly, connecting to her vidscreen on the wall and changing the channel to something else, "if we have to, well go to the ripper and find you some new hands if you want,"

He shook his head, unclenching his fists again before, "Nah, kinda like my ganics hands, same reason I don't was a ," his hand still twitching, he laid it on her thigh and leaned his head against hers.

"Kinda like your ganics too," she giggles, her hand easing under his arm and rubbing his crotch "you definitely don't need a replacement for this though choom."

-xXx-

Two days later…

-xXx-

"You know, Naruto… when most are told to lay low they usually catch up on their reading, check out the latest BD, or maybe do some shopping on the NET." Naruto felt like a academy student again as he sat next to the elderly fixer in his Villefort Valor, hands clasped in his lap as the Padre tried to stare a hole in the side of his head with his disapproving gaze, "If zeroing an Arasaka director is your idea of keeping a low profile…" he trailed off and shook his head, looking out the window as the streets of Heywood passed by.

"The chance came up sooner than I thought and I just had to take it." Naruto grumbled, unclasping his hands and reaching into his pocket to withdraw a small black box around the size of his hand, "I got you a surprise though,"

Looking back over, the Padre raised an eyebrow at the blond, "And what is this?"

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know," he admitted, getting a snort from Marcus in the driverseat which he covered with a cough. "Found it locked away in the guys safe," he handed it over to the man when he held out a hand. It hadn't been the only thing he found in there, he'd taken a little something for himself as well in the form of a stack of eurodollars that had been next to the box as well as a fancy Tanto knife that now had a new home on his shelf.

Taking the box, the man took a few moments to look it over and recognized it as a data drive, there was no telling what kind of paydata may be lurking or what kind of security hid inside to protect it but he knew a few netrunners that would make quick work of it. He didn't show it but what the blond had given him could be a major blessing in his line of work.

This may have even put him in debt to the blond depending on what was found.

"I shall have it looked at Naruto, thank you," the man stated, leaning forward and handing it to Marcus who placed it on the seat next to him, "But on to the reason I asked you to meet with me."

"Found something on Militech?"

"Indeed, there are a few different corpos you could seek out to deal with your Militech issue but one stands out as your best bet," he produced a datashard from his shirt pocket and handed it over to the blond, "Details are on the shard," Naruto took it and slotted it in the slot behind his ear.

"Meredith Stout?" he questioned, seeing a partially glitchy picture of a woman with long blond sweptback hair with thin chrome lines above and below her left eye. "Is she wearing a ballistic vest?"

"The corpo world can be just as ruthless as life on the streets," the man mused with a shrug, "the only difference I can see is that at least we get to keep our souls. But yes, she's a senior operations manager with the NC branch of Militech and from what we've been able to gather she's been on a tear through the city trying to find a stolen shipment that was hijacked."

"No clue where it might be?"

"It isn't in Heywood, I would've already been alerted to any gonk trying to hide a stolen convoy there. It has to be somewhere in Watson if I were to hazard a guess, three stolen Militech trucks are far too noticeable to have made it through Night City unnoticed."

The convoy was hijacked north of NC before getting too far out of the city and since there was no way that convoy made it past the checkpoints between the Autonomous Free City and the NUSA controlled territory, the chances of it still being in NIght City were high. The Militech trucks they used were rugged and tough but they couldn't go too far off road into the badlands so there was no chance that the hijackers took them that way.

Naruto nodded, "And the Northside of Watson has plenty of abandoned places to hide something in." he mused, he hadn't been through that area too many times but it looked like he was about to take a trip there soon enough. "Who's the fixer for that area?"

"Rogue Amendiares," the old fixer stated, looking at him with a raised eyebrow and a small twitch of his mustache, the closest to a smirk most would ever see from the dower man. "But from what I hear, she may not be so forthcoming this time."

Naruto huffed, "I'd rather not have to deal with her right now." he groaned, call him stubborn but he'd rather handle this whole situation alone than have to deal with that woman now.

"There is a new up and coming fixer making waves in Kabuki, a Miss Regina Jones, former media working for the World News Service… I believe she worked for FTF Radio until N54 News acquired it." Naruto listened and nodded, he seemed to remember hearing that name before on the radio a while back while the padre continued to speak, "She's a decent soul… smart too, hear she's making good use of her contacts from her media days."

"I hate to keep asking you for stuff padre," the blond sighed while leaning his arm on the door and looking towards the fixer, "But could you get me in touch with her?"

"Of course,"

What Naruto didn't know was just how much the old man did appreciate what he did. Aside from handling any and all requests and gigs, not only had Naruto gotten payback for his grandchild in all but blood but helped keep his distant nephew alive while killing the man responsible. Now add in the 'gift' in the form of a Arasaka Datadrive belonging to a now deceased Arasaka Director and honestly, he felt that the blond could ask for more.

"I will make arrangements, it should not take too long."

Nodding, Nauto grinned at the old man, "Nova, I'll hit the streets and wait to hear from one of you," he couldn't sit around and wait with Militech on the lookout for him, he needed to get ahead of this and the quicker the better. "Hey Marcus, mind dropping me off up here?"

The man gave a small nod and slowed the car, easing up to the street corner to let the blond out. "Thanks Marcus," he nodded to the man before doing the same to the fixer, "Later old man!" and quickly shut the door, running off with a wave before the fixer could retort and making his way to Watson.

"Mr. Uzumaki's a rather… interesting man," the driver stated, watching the blond run down the sidewalk with a curious expression on his face while the elder of the two grumbled in the back seat, "Hard to believe that he was the Shino."

"Is."

"Sir?" looking at the man through the rearview mirror, Marcus found him looking directly into his eyes.

"He may regret most of what did while wearing that mask but he is still the Shino, whether he likes it or not that name will stick around for a long time." the Padre stated, arms crossed. The Shino was the monster that kept the scavs afraid, scav activity had all but halted for a couple of months, most too afraid to pull off their old tricks of snatching poor gonks off the streets.

-xXx-

V let out a long drawn out sigh as she sat in her company car smoking another cigarette while waiting for Jackie here in the parking lot of Chubby Buffalos. Unlike the last time where they were hanging out to chow down, she had reached out and asked him to come meet her asap. The harsh smoke burned like hell as she filled her lungs but that didn't stop her as it helped calm her nerves until she could apply to get chipped with a company Limbic implant.

Due to her position with Counter Intelligence, she was eligible to get certain chrome approved to increase productivity at a discounted price and like nearly every other member of Counter Intelligence before her, the first one she applied from was the simply named, 'Limbic mesh'. Simply put, it helped manage stress and anxiety and vastly reduced the number of stress related suicides in the past five years.

Finishing another smoke, she thumped it out her open door just as Jackie pulled in beside her, his bike grumbling and growling before he shut it off, "Yo V, what's going on holmes. You sounded nervous on the holo." he called out worriedly as he leaned on the tank.

"Hop in Jackie, please." he gave her a look and nodded, climbing off his bike and quickly walking around to the passenger side.

"What's going on V?" he questioned again, after opening the door, climbing in and shutting the door.

"Things are fucked at work right now," she told him, shutting her own door as she did, "My boss is under investigation and so is my whole department."

"The fuck?"

"You know how that Saka Director was flatlined?" she questioned, getting a nod from the man next to her, "You remember that guy I hired you to put in the hospital?" another slower nod with a frown, "That was the Directors driver,"

"Hijo de puta!" he groaned, covering his face with a grimace, "They are coming after us or something!"

V shook her head, "No, they got a vid of the guy that zeroed him, they don't even care about what happened to the driver, the only reason I brought it up was because the guy that replaced him was planted there by my boss. Get this, he was using him to try and sway the director to name him his successor after he retired." she explained, "they found out now we're all up for an internal review."

'`You in trouble?" he asked, feeling relieved at first when she told him that they didn't care about him putting the driver in the hospital but now worrying for his choom. When she first mentioned what was going down, Jackie had to admit that there had been a moment where he nearly growled 'What the hell did you get me into' thinking that he was about to find himself on the wrong end of an arasaka kill squad. But seeing and hearing how anxious his choom sounded, he felt bad for her.

"I don't think so… fuck Jackie, I don't know." She muttered, leaning back and grabbing another smoke, "Whole department is up for review though, so no telling what'll happen."

The man watched as she fumbled with the lighter and dropped it, "It'll be ok 'mano," he told her gently, taking the lighter and striking it for her, "Tell me the deets, what's happening."

Everyone in ACI would be under investigation, several senior members were already walking around as if they already knew they'd be facing a Saka hit squad soon. Hell if half the rumors are true then they'd be lucky if that's all that happened to them. Jenkins looked more annoyed than anything and had told her to just keep her mouth shut and nothing would happen, to remember that he always rewarded loyalty. She wasn't worried about what'll come up in the review on her end, she kept her chrome clean and if anything, she might suffer a dock in pay for some minor infractions of company SOP.

Explaining all this, she thumped the ash off the end of her smoke and looked over at him, "Only thing I'm worried about is some gonk trying to frame me for some shit they pulled,"

"Well shit chica, if they do give me a ring on the holo, well burry that fucker so deep they'll pop up under Arasaka's shitter," That got a snort from the woman.

"Speaking of," she suddenly turned to look at him, "Keep this quiet but NCPD is about to start cracking down around the Waterfront, word is that old Saburo Asasaka is sending someone here to oversee the investigation and the gonks up top want to look good.

"Who?"

"Hanako Arasaka,"

-xXx-

"Here you go choom, one Hawt Dawg all the way,"

Naruto nodded to the man working the small stand and slid him the eddies for his food with a grin, "Keep the change, choom," he told him, making the vendor's eyes widen before nodding quickly. It wasn't like he'd given the man a hundred or anything but it was definitely more than double the price.

"My man, I appreciate the fuck outta that choom," the vendor chuckled, a grin of his own splitting his face, "Stop by again and i'll make sure you get the best dawg I can make alright?"

Giving the man a thumbs up, Naruto looked at the Hawt Dawg and found that it looked a lot more appetizing than the 'ScopDogs' he'd had before. It actually had the right coloring and the bun even felt soft even if it did smell a bit off. Glancing at the small paper tray, which was quickly getting soggy from the scopchili dripping off the bun he snorted at the logo and the text below it, 'The thickest dogs and tightest buns in town!'

After making his way to Watson, Naruto found himself on the corner of Bradbury and Buran not too far from Misty's Esoterica and Chakra Harmonization and Viks Clinic, when his stomach growled. It wasn't ramen but it was ok and would hold him over till later.

'Maybe I'll go to that place I found with Cami,' he mused to himself, walking down the road while chewing his food, 'Haven't been there in a while…" maybe he'd even find that old man selling kunai and shuriken, he'd found a few places that sold one or two but they were poor quality compared to the few he got from the geezer and didn't want to run out again.

"And I tell you 'NO!' the Arasaka's are no ordinary clan…" Turning the corner, the flashing neon sign of Gomorrah caught his attention or better yet, the dancing girls behind the window did. But the loud yelling across from them quickly made him look across the street to find a scruffy man in glasses wearing a thick rubber coat preaching to anyone who would listen to him.

While he didn't know much about the Arasaka family, he could agree that they weren't a normal clan, maybe this guy had some interesting info about them. "VAMPIRES! The lot of them!" Naruto nearly tripped, "Their bodies never age but notice their eyes! Cold and dead! Their corporation only exists as a cover to hide their wicked means of existence!"

'Or maybe not,' he thought, passing by the man who continued to spread his 'message' on the street. He was standing outside of a tiny alleyway right next to Misty's shop so Naruto quickly found himself by the open doorway looking in, ignoring the man and woman sitting on a graffiti covered bench about two steps away from putting on an open air sex show.

Like the last time he'd been here, the shop was alight with various purples and reds, some blacklights here and there that made a few odds and ends glow. While he wasn't really into all the spiritual customs of this place, he could identify with quite a few of them. It was kind of odd how some customs and beliefs could be pretty similar to how it was back home.

From the doorway, he could see Misty leaning against the counter nearly asleep, her head slowly bobbing up and down as she fought off the urge to nap. Walking through, a small buzzer went off, alerting Misty to his arrival who shot up, looking towards the door, "Oh, hey Naruto," she greeted him with a little wave, "Here to see Vik?"

"Hey Misty," he greeted back, stepping into the shop and looking around, "Yeah, I need to see if he has some cybernetics I need." she hid it well but she seemed to deflate a bit. "Something wrong?"

"Eh business is slow…" she grumbled a bit before putting on a small smile, "aside from Jackie or Vik, your the only other person to come by in the last couple of days." Misty looked down and picked a loose string from her purple knitted sweater, "People in this town… they don't really care about connecting to their inner spirit."

"Not everyone," he told her, "I ran into a monk a while back, had this whole zen master vibe and everything." He told her about how he'd ran into him and meditated then how the guy helped him after Cami died.

"Well if you ever run into him again, I'd love to meet him," he looked at her as she picked up a deck of cards and started to gently shuffle them.

"What's up with the cards?"

"These?" She held up the deck of back of purple and orange cards, "They're tarot cards, a long time ago, like hundreds of years ago they were used to play games. But now some believe Tarot is a symbolic map of consciousness that encompasses our journey through life, both spiritually and practically." seeing his half confused stare she got a little grin on her face, "Jackie had the same look when I explained it to him. Want me to read your tarot?"

Naruto thought about it for a minute then shrugged, a small grin on his face, "Sure, tell me my future," making her roll her eyes, "What?"

"It's more than that Naruto, it's meant to provide insight into our innermost truths of our higher selves."

"I don't know about your higher self but my higher self is usually hungry and sleepy," he joked, making her stop for moment, roll her eyes and place four cards down in front of him, "Oh come on that was a good one,"

She ignored his little whine and flipped the first one, revealing a red background of ragged metal buildings, wires, and skies filled with smoke. At the center there's a punk in yellow walking on a rooftop with a dog behind him as he's about to blindly step off the edge. "The Fool,"

"Hey," he whined.

"The Fool is everyone - including you and me. Each step he takes on his journey feels like stepping into a brave new world. Ultimately, the journey will change him. But as the card shows, he's trustworthy and whose tireless hope will drive him toward his goal."

Flipping the next card, she glanced up at him, "Death… and don't worry, I'm not predicting your untimely demise or anything," the card depicted a shadowy cybernetic skeletal figure with glowing yellow eyes licking a raised sword with an organic forked tongue. "Death is the card of becoming. It signifies an imminent and difficult transition, even the conclusion of one phase of life and the beginning of another. Inevitably, something gets lost during the transformation, but something else will rise and take its place."

The next card she revealed, slowly and deliberately flipping the card, he thought it looked neat, "The Sun." It showed a cybernetic female dressed in a white and black cowboy outfit riding a golden motorcycle with the night sky at his back, a large planet or moon taking up a large portion of the sky behind her.

"The Sun symbolizes success. It is a card of freedom, renewal and a bright future that lies ahead. The Sun also represents truth, for its light will always pull back the curtain of shadow that hides the world's secrets. It also represents greatness and splendor."

He hummed, squinting his eyes and crossing his arms as he listened to her.

"Alright," she waited a moment to let him take in her words, "Last card…" she turned it over, "The World," the card showed the outline of a human figure with an entire vibrant cityscape inside the silhouette. In the middle of the head is a glowing orb with veins of light working its way down towards the city.

"The World lies at the end of The Fool's long and winding journey. Wiser and more world-weary than he started out, the Fool faces a moment of reckoning." he rolled his eyes, "Some of us accept where our journey has led us to, while others embark on a new challenge. One thing in this World is certain – you can't have it all."

After a few moments, she started picking the cards up, "Don't take them too seriously though Naruto, they're meant to help you look within yourself, not be the answer to any problems or questions." He nodded slowly to her questions while she carefully put them away, "I'm sure your ready to go talk to Vik, I won't hold you up."

"Actually Misty," he started, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, "I've been meaning to set something up for Cami, some incense and maybe some candles or something… you mind helping me out with that?"

"I think I can help you out with that,"

-xXx-

With the whole dustup between the Valentinos and 6th Street ending almost as quickly as it began, gigs and other biz were steadily popping up again. Hell, it even picked up a bit more than usual with biz that had been put off now flooding the gig pool.

"Yo Maine, what's up my choom!"

Looking up from his screamsheet or better yet the article about a version of a mantis blade that could deploy from your leg, Maine saw the crew's resident gun gremlin all but skipping into their old garage hangout with yet another gun he hadn't seen her with before.

"Hey Becca!" Dorio greeted from her side, working the punching bag chained to a rafter in the corner of the room. It had been annoying as hell to get it secured to the point where she wouldn't snap the original chains but they worked it out.

"New iron huh? He chuckled, making her grin as she held it up. While not a connoisseur by any means, he'd recognize a budget arms power shotgun anywhere. He'd found himself on the business end of one more than once in his time as a edgerunner. "Little big for you ain't it?"

She threw the shotgun over her shoulder as she walked over, "Don't know, hadn't shot it yet!" As she got closer he saw that the weapon was partially spattered with blood, "Some gonk brained booster didn't need it anymore so I took it." Took it from his still warm corpse more like. "Figured I'd give this baby a test shot at one of the junkers outside."

"Hey don't go shooting my car Rebecca!" Came a yell from further back, while they didn't really keep anything too important here, Piler set up a small techie station to fix his random shit and work on their stuff off and on when needed.

"Fuck you Piler!" She huffed, turning to where her lanky techhead brother appeared from around a doorway and flipping him off, "ain't gonna shoot up that shitcan Maimai of yours!"

He returned the motion, his long chrome fingers gleaming in the shop lighting with a little smirk on his face, "Just making sure, you know how you get ya little porky gremlin!"

"Say that again glitter bitch!" She roared, hoisting the budget arms shotgun and shouldering it, "how about I test it on you!"

Eyes wide, Maine watched as Piler dived back through the door he'd peeked around just before Rebecca opened fire, launching the gremlin off her feet and back outside the building where she disappeared from view with a yelp as he shielded his face with his arms.

"You good babe?" He heard Dorio call out from across the room before he stood up.

"Yeah I'm nova," looking back he whistled at the large chunk of wall that had been blasted off. That might've been a budget arms shotgun but he'd never seen one with that kind of firepower. "Mind checking on Becca?"

She nodded and stepped over to the now open door, which Becca nearly tore off the frame when she was thrown through it. "Becca" the woman called out as she walked through, only to see the girl giggling on the ground hugging the shotgun to her chest. "You ok down there?"

The girl turned to look up at her with glimmering pink and green optics, "The gun is fucking preem!"

"Well that was unexpected," Both looked over and spotted a familiar blond wearing a long red synth leather coat with a cybernetic faceplate covering the lower half of her face.

Becca waved from her spot laying on the ground, "Hey Kiwi, sup?"

"Maine called, said something about a gig?" The Netrunner mused, arms crossed with a lit cigarette between her fingers. She gave the pair of them a raised eyebrow and turned to Dorio, motioning to the gremlin on the ground, "do I want to know?"

"Becca's got new iron," Dorio laughed, stepping around the much shorter woman and helping her up with ease.

"Yup!" She patted the shotgun, "gotta have guts to fire this bad boy! Check it out!" Whirling around, she aimed it at one of the junk cars and fired it again, the recoil nearly snapping her arms this time as she flew off her feet and into Dorio who caught her with ease and held her to her chest like a little gun toting plushy who giggled.

Kiwi blinked at the sight and glanced over to the junker that looked like someone unloaded an entire mag from an assault rifle. "Kinda overkill isn't it?"

"Nope!"

-xXx-

After helping him pick out several items and offering to have them sent over to his apartment, Naruto happily paid the woman for both his new stuff and the tarot reading. Misty didn't really want to accept the eddies for reading his tarot but his insistence and her lack of customers made her cave rather easily.

"Hey Naruto?" He opened the door and stopped just before heading into the alleyway, turning to see Misty looking at him with her hands in front of her, hands clasped. "Can I ask you…" she trailed off and shook her head, waving it off, "You know what, nevermind it's stupid."

"What's up?" he responded, only for her to shake her head. The blond studied her face for a moment and turned back to the door, sliding it shut before walking back into her shop. Misty gave him an odd look as he paced back around the counter and leaned against it like when she read his tarot, "Come on Misty, I know we're not close or anything but a friend of Jackie's is a friend of mine so what's up?" he waited a moment and cocked his head to the side, "Someone bothering you?"

That got a small laugh from her, "No, nothing like that, it's just… I'm worried." she admitted, returning to her side of the counter and pulling up a small stool she kept under it, "Have you spoken to Jackie lately?" he shook his head which made her frown and nod slowly, "I see."

"Is Jackie in trouble?" he really hoped not but if needed, he'd drop this Militech business for a while to help him out if he had to.

But Misty shook her head, "I don't know, I don't think so… he was here a little while ago but got a call from his friend, he said she sounded worried and rushed out." She was rambling a bit, reaching down to pick up a small pencil to doodle on her countertop where the outline of a dragon was sketched on the surface, "You know we started dating right?"

He hadn't but honestly he wasn't too surprised, the few times he had spoken to the man, Jackie had Mentioned Misty once or twice each time and looking back, he'd spent several hours hanging out with her while he was getting patched up by Vik and even though he was in a bad mindset at the time, he'd noticed how they both seemed to look at each other when they thought the other wasn't really looking. "I suspected there was a little something going on between you two." he told her, a little smirk on his face.

"Well it's only been official for a little while," she admitted, looking away but blushing as she did, "But could you talk to him and make sure everythings ok?"

Naruto nodded, "Sure thing, and if he's in trouble I promise I'll help him out,"

"Thank you," she gave him a small smile, cheeks still a little red which stood out against her dark lipstick and eyeliner. "I don't want him to think I'm nosy or anything but I just don't want anything bad to happen to him you know? He's a great guy."

"I'll give him a call as soon as I'm done with Vik,"

"I appreciate it… really,"

With that, he grinned and once again pushed away from the sales counter, heading towards the back door again, "Later Misty,"

"Later Naruto,"

-xXx-

[You hear about what's going down with Jenkins in ACI?]

[Oh yeah, I hear he's getting bent over like a joytoy by Abernathy. Looks like he's fucked when it comes to that promotion to Director.]

[Can't say I'm too surprised… relieved actually… both of them are fucking psychopaths but I'll take Abernathy over Jenkins being Director anyday of the week. Hear any deets about the stunt he pulled?]

[No, spill]

[So the Director's driver gets a Santo special out in the streets. Robbed and ended up in the hospital, he had one of those one time use Trauma Team packages so they picked him up before any Scav could snatch him.]

[Yeah heard about that, you saying Jenkins was involved?]

[Probably, but it seems like no one cares about it though. Sucks for him, gonk was actually a good dude from what I hear. Anyway, the new guy that replaced him was constantly updating Jenkins about the DIrector.]

[Shady but nothing incriminating though. I'm sure half the drivers for the other directors are probably reporting on them too,]

[Yeah. But they didn't end up being thrown out a penthouse window.]

[Yet]

[Yeah, yet… and from what I'm hearing, Abernathy's using that fact to throw Jenkins under the bus and that shits working from the sound of it, once the investigations wrapped up, I'm certain that Arasaka's planning on promoting her to the position. ]

[Oh yeah, Hanako Arasaka's coming to NC, how exciting.]

[You just want to see her bodyguard in person again,]

[Bite me gonk, I can enjoy the view all I want. I don't bring up your weird attraction to you know who…]

[... I'm sorry, won't bring it up again.]

[...]

[...]

[Yorinobu Arasaka though?]

[Fuck you]

-xXx-

"... Director Bennett in his capacity served to help establish a firm foundation for Arasaka concerns, personally overseeing the monumental task of securing the foundation which is now known as the Arasaka Waterfront. He is survived by his only child, Ms. Amelia Bennett to whom we send our sincerest condolences in-," David felt himself lose focus as the holographic form in the center of the classroom droned on and on about some dead corpo he didn't care or know anything about.

From the bytes of whispered convos he overheard in the halls of the academy, the administration had heard that what was originally assumed to be a suicide was quickly labeled a murder. That signs of a breakin and a struggle had been found and now the whole company was losing its shit. Apparently it had even made it to the ear of the 'Emperor' himself and someone high up on the corpo ladder was even coming in to oversee things.

What did he care about all this though? As far as he was concerned, this whole thing didn't affect him in the slightest… Well no, it did give him a free period while the academy gave this long drawn out announcement so maybe he did get something outta the gonks death.

'Ugh my legs hurt,' he mused, Naruto had him running and doing stamina building exercises, much to his disappointment but seeing how fast the blond could react and move, he kept with it. He wanted to be able to move like that, sure someone like the woman Naruto 'sparred' with could probably knock most gonks out with a single blow but it didn't matter if she couldn't catch them right?

"Hey Martinez."

Glancing over to the seat next to him, he bit back a groan at the blue haired corpo brat asshole he'd had the misfortune of having to deal with constantly, "What is it Tanaka?" he shot back in a low tone as the holographic projection continued to drone. He already had a good idea as to what he wanted, the gonk only ever actually called him by his name when he wanted something.

"Got anything good?"

Of course he was right. Tanaka was a son of a bitch any other time but when he wanted something that only he could reliably get, suddenly he wasn't just a streetrat. "Like?" but that was fine, Tanaka could be a asshole but he couldn't complain when he gouged the fuck outta him for XBDs. One good thing about these corpo kids, they had money and weren't afraid to flex it. Barely any of his 'customers' tried to haggle with him.

"Bored, just need something new,"

Thinking, David had to take a mental stock of his 'stash'. He had a few porn BDs, some high speed chase XBDs ending in a wreck that kicked his fight or flight response into overdrive from the feedback. He even had a pair of XBDs leftover from the 'gangwar' a few months back, which was just a short shootout between two groups of rival gangoons but for as short as it was, the fight was brutal.

"Got a preem BD of a shootout between the Tinos and Sixers," he muttered back sharing a few details to hype it up to the blue haired bully of his, "Last one too, got a choom that wants it and he's offering 500 for it." It definitely wasn't the last one but it was the last one he was willing to sell right now. He'd been keeping at least one copy of any decent XBD the doc sent him for his collection.

"600,"

"Deal," damn, maybe he should've said a higher price, Tanaka jumped on it a lot faster than he expected. "Same as usual?" The student nodded once and they went back to ignoring each nothing else at least he made some creds and Tanaka would leave him alone for a day or two before going back to being the massive asshole he normally was. They'd meet up after class and Tanaka would transfer the eddies to him and he'd pass over the BD.

"After he completed the task, Saburo Arasaka personally recognized his achievement and-" once again David's mind started wondering, 'Ugh how long are were gonna have to listen to this?' he groaned while keeping a straight face, 'the gonks flatlined already, stop jerking him off.'

-xXx-

The older Ripper sat on his rolling stool beside the two desks he'd pushed into the corner of the room. Several small parts and pieces laid out in a neat pile beside several trophies all lit up by the long red light bars above them that made much of his workstation glow a dim red. How the man worked under such dim light and wearing sunglasses at the same time, Naruto didn't know.

As he walked in, a bell rang which he wasn't expecting, making Vik look up from fiddling on tool he wore on his arm. "Hey kid, nice to see ya," he called out, tightening a screw with the small screwdriver in his hand. "Like the new bell? Took a bit of engineering but I hooked up the old ringside bell from my boxing days."

The man motioned over to the wall where the old brass ringside bell was hanging and Naruto checked it out. It looked like he rigged up a small pulley that would ping the bell whenever someone opened the gate leading in.

"Pretty cool," he admitted, looking at how Vik had seemed to jury-rig it with a few simple parts, "How's biz been?"

"Eh, I can't really complain too much. Corpos finally took the hint I wasn't interested in working for 'em and backed off." He mused to the blond. They'd talked the last time he came in and Vik had mentioned how some Biotechnica corpo headhunter was trying to recruit him to work for them. Even now he would get a message over the Net with the offer still being brought up, "so what brings you in today kid, chrome acting up at all?"

Raising his arm, Naruto wiggled his fingers and flexed his cybernetic arm, "Nah, feels pretty natural actually. No other issues with the other stuff either."

"That's good,"

"I'm actually here about some other chrome though."

Vik blinked, "Really, your looking to chrome up some more?" He crossed his arms and turned to face the blond fully, "anything in particular?"

"I need something to blur my face from cameras," he muttered loudly enough for the other man to hear, remembering how the Fixer Queen had mocked him about that. "Got anything for that?"

The man looked thoughtful, rolling over to the other desk and fishing out a dataslate. "Something with a lens disruptor huh" he muttered to himself while flipping through a few things on the slate. From where he was standing, Naruto could see a few pictures of different implants that Vik had in stock or access to.

"Just got in a Kiroshi, it's got your basics and it's compatible with your soft. It's got some basic scanning capabilities and a built-in optical lens disruptor like you're looking. Any cam gets a good look at your face and all it'll see is a blur." He stated, expanding the pic and turning the dataslate towards the blond.

"It replaces my whole eye doesn't it?" Vik nodded, "what if I decided I didn't want it later?" He was hesitant on getting rid of his own flesh and blood eye, that's why he stuck with the obsolete holo lens that fit over his eye like a contact lens.

"If you did decide you wanted to go back to a ganics eye there are labs specialized in cloning body parts." The ripper explained, "there have been several instances where the body rejected the chrome and they've had to get a new one grown and implanted."

"Not the original?"

"In some cases, but keeping the eye viable for too long is costly, it's cheaper to have a new one grown in cases where the body starts to reject the implant. Sometimes it's day before the body reacts but sometimes it can be weeks or even months even with immunosuppressants allowing it to heal perfectly,"

"There any other ways to do it without chipping in?"

Once again Vik had to think, "It's possible, but the tech's already restricted. Wouldn't even risk bringing it up if you weren't a choom in the first place." The way he said it made Naruto think that he wasn't supposed to have the cybereye in the first place. "Not only that, but this has an uplink to the NCPD database, nothing too special but it can identify wanted individuals with bounties."

"Wait, isn't that a bad idea? Wouldn't they know if someone was looking random people up in their database?" He wasn't too well versed on the net but Cami had tried to teach him a few things about hacking and ICE, which sadly didn't stick too well if he was honest.

"NCPD allows it, anyone doing so is considered a subcontractor, you ID and take down any gonk with a bounty and they pay you the bounty after submitting proof."

Crossing his arms, Naruto looked down and considered it. The thought of replacing his eye was both kinda cool and daunting at the same time but it had been something he'd been thinking about for awhile, ever since Vik first mentioned it when he decided to get the optical holo lens instead.

"Alright, let's do it,"

Grinning back at the blond, Vik reached over and took a airhypo from his desk, jabbing himself in the arm, "Just take a seat in the chair kid,"

-xXx-

After the rest of the crew showed up, they gathered up in the backroom of the old auto shop hangout and sat down to go over the details of the gig.

Piller was taking up one end of the couch they'd moved in a while back, leaning against the arm with a lump on his head while keeping his distance from his sister, who was sitting on the arm on the opposite side with her arms crossed, a little pout on her face.

Between them sat Dorio, the little grimlins shotgun leaning against her knee while she sideeyed the girl with a little smirk of her own. She had unloaded the massive shells from the iron earlier to ensure Piler didn't meet an unfortunate gelding but when the man opened his mouth, Rebecca proved she didn't need it to be loaded to hurt the man and bashed him over the head with it instead.

She promised to give it back later.

Kiwi, their ever aloof ice queen Netrunner, was leaning against the nearby wall behind them, arms crossed with the last bit of her cigarette burning between her fingers. She would have brought Lucy along again as well but the girl had other plans for something.

"Got us a gig from 'El Capitan' this time," Maine told his crew while sending them the deets over the holo. "Some corpo collectors been eyeing a bike and he's paying some preem eddies for us to klep it from some gonk bastard that's been riding it around the city,"

"Sorry I'm late!" They heard coming from the front, recognizing Sashas voice instantly as the Netrunner poked her head around the corner with a catty little smile on her face. "I brought a gift though!"

"Nice of you to join us," Maine called out, making her stick out her tongue, "no problems getting here?"

She waved it off, "nah, all nova!" The girl held up a plastic bag, "just the gonk at the shop, kept eyeing my ass so I had to drop a little something in his subnet,"

That made the rest of them snort and shake their heads as she reached in and pulled out a beer, passing the rest over to the others who each got a beer as well, "so what's going on, I miss anything?"

"Nothing major, just started going over the deets," Maine repeated that he'd told the others and sent her a copy as well.

"Damn things old as shit," Pilar called out, mind already racing, "doubt the thing has any anti theft worth a damn on it," the picture they had of the bike was some dusty ad from who knows how long ago plus another from an old showroom.

Most newer vehicles had some half-ass security soft on it, nothing that would keep a determined runner out unless you were willing to pay for the upgrades but it was usually enough for the run of the mill punk looking to take your shit on a joyride. He'd done just that more than once in his time growing up on the streets.

"Yeah well that should make it easier to get a hold of," Maine crossed his arms and sat down on a small crate. "Gigs pretty straight forward, find the bike and deliver it without any major damage."

"How major is major?" Becca questioned.

"Scratches are one thing, bullets and explosions are a no go," he answered, looking at her over the top of his sunglasses, "replacement parts are apparently hard to source so clients paying top eddie for us to keep it in preem condiction."

"Who's the owner?" Kiwi asked after a few moments.

"No clue, client tried buying it from the previous owner but couldn't make the deal or find it. Guy's been seen driving it around Santo though and it stands out. Sasha, Kiwi I need you two to work your magic and see if you can hack into the local CCTV feeds and track it. Piler, you think you can get it going?"

The lanky techhead snorted, "I could get that old thing cranked with my optics disabled."

"Ooh, what about me?"

He turned to the gremlin and smirked, knowing she'd like her part in this, "Becca, if the gonk that owns it puts up a fight you get to handle it." She grinned in response, already imagining using her new shotgun on the gonk… once Dorio gave it back that is. "Me and Dorio will handle security, Santo is Sixer turf so we don't want to be hanging around too long there."

"Alright then, guess I need to go and get prepped for a dive then," Kiwi mused, already thinking of the best ways to break the shitty low-level ICE Night City used on their surveillance subnets. It was something almost every Runner did at least once, almost like a rite of passage. Sasha nodded, having the same thoughts.

-xXx-

"Alright kid, looks like your new chrome is settling in pretty damn well," laying back on the rippers chair, Naruto grumbled and slurred his words as the meds Vik shot him up with started to wear off, which made the man smirk slightly, "hm, looks like the anesthesia is wearing off pretty quick too, any pain or discomfort? Need a little something to take the edge off while it settles?"

The blond blinked several times, his left eyelid blinking closed a little slower than the other. Had Vik not been as professional as he was, he probably would have laughed a bit more at the sight.

"Nah, it's ok," The blond didn't feel any pain in his eye but had to admit that the memory of seeing at small mechanical arm slowly approaching his eye a few hours earlier had been pretty fucking scary, "anything… I should know…"

"About post-op care?" Vik finished, getting a slow nod in return from the blond while wheeling around to his side, tapping away at a small keyboard connected to the machines. "Well naturally I want you to take it easy, your bodies taking to the chrome pretty well but I'll still get you a round of immunosuppressants just in case,"

Naruto nodded and watched as several lines of code filled the left side of his vision. "Alright, you should be seeing some soft booting up." Vik looked around and hummed, nodding towards his overture revolver he'd set on a nearby table, "Once it's finished booting, try scanning your iron,"

He shrugged and waited, doing as the ripper said once the progress bar reached one hundred percent, "Nothings happening,"

"Hmm…" a few more taps at the machine, "Try now."

The vision in his left eye changed and the revolver was highlighted in yellow, a small progress bar rapidly filling up. "Oh ok, it's doing something now Vik." A moment passed and a small window popped up, displaying basic information on his pistol. Manufacturer, model, caliber, basic stuff. Pretty cool but at the same time he didn't see him using it too often.

"You also have access to NCPD's subcontractor database too, like I mentioned before. If you scan anyone with a rap sheet, you'll get some basic information on them too." Naruto leaned up and disconnected his personal link from Viks chair. "Oh and kid it should go without saying but don't scratch your eye too much for a day or two ok?"

"You got it Vik," He transferred the funds via his holo, Vik nodding as he got them and handing over the inhaler with his immunosuppressants.

"Feel free to take it easy until you feel ready to get going kid, don't want you staggering into traffic cause you're still doped up." the man stated after noticing him getting ready to climb out of the chair

The ninja nodded after thinking about it for a moment, head still a tiny bit fuzzy, "Yeah, I think I will, your awesome Vik." he settled back in and took a deep breath, "This chairs pretty comfortable,"

"Hehe, only the best for my patients choom,"

-xXx-

Inside the remains of what used to be a old Holonet service providers office before it was brutally bought out by other corps, another enterprising young force has been making good use of the old abandoned subnets and connections left to rot away in the building. She'd only been working as a fixer for a couple of years now but had steadily made a rep for herself here in Kabuki.

'Uzumaki Naruto. DOB: unknown, looks to be in mid to late twenties but any gonk with the eddies can undergo rejuvenation therapy to look younger. No records before '74, no real ones anyway. Pops up sporadically here and there but just more of the same scop, nothing.' Staring at the holoscreens on the apartment wall, Regina Jones crossed her arms and went over what info she could pull so far from her sources. In her time as a member of the media, she cultivated an impressive amount of sources and contacts, some that hated her, some that tolerated her, but all of them willing to work with her in this city.

'Makes a break in the merc scene in Heywood working with the Padre there and some small time fixer, operating and working gigs in both Santo and Heywood. Guy has some type of prior history with 6th Street too, contacts in 6th Street held areas reported that General Morton himself says 'Leave the little gonkfuck alone,' would love to know why but no ones talking.' she had been hearing about a new merc with a solid rep for helping folk, hell not too long ago she heard reports that a blond haired punk in orange had saved one of the working girls on Jigjig, beating the shit out of a Tyger Claw gangoon and throwing him through Wakako's pachinko parlor or something.

Guy had guts, and Regina had to admit, she liked that.

'Had a mainline, Camilla Orta, who was murdered by 6th Street, that's gotta be related to why Morton says to leave 'em alone,' She might have lost her eye but that didn't diminish her ability to read between the lines. Days after the girl died, sixer gangoons started being slaughtered, he had something to do with that. 'She was the younger sister of Valentino shotcaller Gustavo Orta so he's also connected to that gang as well, also heard they had a bit of a disagreement about something as well after the girl flatlined.

Once again, the gonk had balls to go toe to toe with two gangoon bosses like that.

'He's been completing gigs damn near nonstop since his mainline was zeroed.' Understandable really… throwing himself into work as a distraction, a tried and true coping mechanism all over the world. 'He's got a solid rep, the padre's go to runner it seems.'

It had been several hours since she got the surprising message that the blond merc wanted to make contact, not too long ago he'd not only annoyed Wakako, turns out the gonk he'd thrown around like a old kids toy was the old bats grandson, but had pissed of the queen of fixers herself. Most edgerunners gossiped like a bunch of old grannys so rumors got around pretty quick, gonk had knocked out her hustle and walked out middle finger held high.

Son of a bitch had style too. Pissing off two old cunts in less than a few days and not afraid to blacken a few eyes to help out those on the bottom. That alone would've made her give him a shot, not to mention the Padre's recommendation.

Using the contact provided by said fixer, Regina made her decision by selecting call on her holo. As always, the user icon for the call popped up and she raised her one good eyebrow at the sight of his, most mercs had custom icons but she'd never seen a merc have a picture of himself… sprawled out across a bed sleeping with a sheet barely making him decent. A cartoon fox icon covered most of his face but she could see enough to know it was him but oddly enough, the words, 'Cami was here' was written across his stomach.

After a few moments of ringing, she started to wonder if he wasn't going to answer but the icon flickered and the blond Merc popped up on her holo feed.

Hello? The blond had what looked like a fresh cyberware line beside his eye leading towards his ear, the skin looking a little red and inflamed so he must have just gotten some new chrome recently.

"Naruto Uzumaki right?" She questioned getting a small nod from the blond before getting down to business "Regina Jones, the Padre forwarded your contact says you have some potential biz to discuss with me."

The blond looked around for a moment before looking back at her through the holo, [Yeah, I'm looking for some trucks that went missing, Militech convoy hijacked on the way out of the city, I need to find them.] She'd heard about the hijacking a while back. Boostergang zeroed the entire security team and left them scattered all over the road but that was old news, so what did this Merc want with it though?

[I suspect the trucks are still in the city] he continued, breaking her from her thoughts, [Somewhere in the Northside but I don't know that area too well.]

"And you figure with my contacts around here, I might have something?" A fair assessment really.

[Well I was hoping] he shrugged, giving her a little grin and scratching at the side of his head.

[Hey kid, what did I say about scratching at the chrome!] She heard someone call out over the call, making the blonde snatch his hand away like a child caught by his parents, [You gotta let it heal before you fuck with it.]

[Sorry Vik!] Naruto called out, looking over to his side and laughing nervously.

'Vik huh?' Regina mused to herself, another good sign in the blonds favor. Viktor Vektor was a legend in his own right among certain circles, a Ripper with a heart always looking out for his patients and a hell of a right hook. She'd covered the Watson Boxing Grand Prix a few years back when she was still a fresh faced junior member of the Media and the Vektor had come in second place in the heavyweight bouts. Impressive considering he kept most of his 'ganics while the other boxers chromed up.

If the old ripper was willing to work on the guy, then that said a bit about his character.

[Sorry about that, but look I'm more than willing to pay for the information you have or what you can find. Either that or maybe work something out but I need to find those trucks or narrow down the search at least.]

Walking over to one of her many terminals, the Kabuki based fixer looked over her contacts and looked thoughtful, "I'm certain I can dig something up… and as for payment, how about this… as a show of good faith I'll forward what I find, in return I'll contact you with a gig in the future."

[Information in return for working a gig?] He questioned, raising an eyebrow which made her nod, [Alright, the old man says you're a good person so I'm willing to work with you.] He muttered something under his breath that she couldn't make out but it sounded like he said, 'unlike the Granny in Watson.' was he talking about Rogue? [And who knows, maybe we'll work together more in the future huh?]

'Depends on what my contacts have to say about you,' she mused to herself as they ended the call.

Most of the information she had on him was old news, hearsay and speculation for the most part, it would take more than a few hours for her contacts to finish digging up any and everything they could on him but so far he seemed like a good person… as weird as that sounded for NC.

But for now she'd dig up what she could about the missing trucks, someone had to have seen something and she knew just who to ask. Depending on what he other contacts found out about him, she'd decide if their working relationship was worth continuing past a one and done deal.

-xXx-

He'd originally planned on heading up to the Northside Industrial District or the NID as some called it, have his clones run around and take a look around but decided to wait a bit first. He wanted to get used to his new eye and give it a little time to heal before he did anything else so on the walk back, he played with the scanner, looking at cars, advertisements, dozens of different vending machines that were scattered around the city as he neared the entrance to his Mega building.

"Hey watch where you're going asshole!" Naruto felt someone bump into him, causing him to blink rapidly as he closed the scanner in a flash to see a woman looking at him like he was stupid as he passed by. "Fucking gonk," she thin, wearing a pair of the shortest shorts he'd seen so far and a plastic see through shirt that showed off the bra she wore underneath.

"Sorry," he called out, only for the woman to scoff and roll her eyes.

"Hehe, don't mind her choom," Turning, he found the noodle guy sitting in his rusty lawn chair, feet kicked up on a milkcrate as he fanned himself with a crinkled paper fan, "She don't like anyone, not even herself most days,"

"Hey, Aiko right?" the blond asked questioningly, looking back at the woman who crossed the street before turning back, getting a smirk and a thumbs up from the man.

"Yep, that's me." the cook grumbled, fanning himself, "You up for some grub choom, on the house." When the blond raised an eyebrow, the man chuckled, "Yeah yeah, I know. But since you paid for all those guys last time, I figure you deserve a free bowl at least," that and the blond had given him more than he needed to cover for those gonks the other day.

Thinking about it for a minute, Naruto nodded, "Sure, why not," it wasn't exactly ramen but they were good as hell.

"Hehe, that's the spirit," Standing up, the man groaned as he stretched and moved around to the back of his stand, "Just sit back and watch the master at work."

Crossing his arms with a little grin on his face, Naruto nodded, "Alright Noodle maestro, let's see how a master does it."

Aiko smirked back at him and got the flattop going, "Gonks today don't know shit about good cooking," he mused while picking through his bottles of flavoring, "Most of the city eats over half their meals outta some godforsaken vending machine. Hell, most kids don't even know a good home cooked meal is"

Naruto leaned back as the man tossed a handful of something onto the grill and doused it with some kind of liquid, which hissed and produced a puff of steam, "Yeah, I noticed most apartments didn't have a kitchen." he grumbled. Like most things in the city, having a kitchen around here was considered a luxury that most just didn't bother with.

The cook nodded, "Choom, believe me when I say that my folks couldn't keep me out of our kitchen when I was a kid," he tossed some more ingredients on the flattop and let them cook for a bit, mixing and stirring them around every now and then.

"You help with the cooking or something?"

That got a snort in return, "Please… I wish, they hated me wanting to cook and considered it below us, 'only the help should be in the kitchen' and shit you know," this time he added some noodles to the mix along with another liquid, as he grumbled bitterly "They couldn't stand the fact that I wanted to be a chef." Naruto raised an eyebrow and watched as the man worked the flattop like a master and continued to speak, "They even made sure no place would hire me on, I saved up for a long time to get all this,"

"Damn, sorry choom,"

Aiko's eyes widened, "No," he let out a sigh, "No I'm sorry, didn't mean to ramble like that," picking up a small piece of what almost looked like meat on the end of his spatula, he held it up to the blond, "Here, give this a try,"

Naruto picked it up and popped it in his mouth, "Damn that's good,"

That got a grin from the man, "I know right, my own creation,"

"Hey look, don't take this the wrong way but why are you cooking noodles out here like this?" Naruto had to ask, finishing the bite he'd been given, "You could have your own restaurant with this,"

"Ha, I fuckin wish," Aiko snorted again, rolling his eyes, "I can barely afford rent, much less buy everything for a restaurant." The man grabbed a bowl from behind the stall and scooped the food into it, "here you go choom, a real Aiko Special."

It didn't look any different from the last bowl he'd gotten but the smell told him otherwise. If he hadn't stood there and watched the entire time, Naruto would've sworn that the man had thrown some actual meat on the grill instead of what he knew was SCOP. Whatever kind of flavorings he mixed in, put it right up there around Mama Welles level of cooking… not that he'd ever admit it to the woman's face.

"Hehe, don't choke on it choom," The man laughed, watching as he scarfed it down like a starving animal, "At least enjoy it a little,"

"Aiko…" Naruto slurped a long noodle up noisily, "You need to open your own place, hell, if you could make raman as good as this, I'd do my best to raise the eddies myself."

"Hmm… It's been a while since I made raman," the man looked thoughtful, smiling, "I remember my parents hired this old woman to cook for us, she taught me how to make the noodles and everything from scratch…" he sighed and shrugged, "But like I said-"

Naruto cut him off, "How much?"

"Huh?"

"How much to open your own place,"

The man looked at the blond and got a little nervous at the dead fish eyed stare Naruto was giving him, "I-I'm not sure,"

"Aiko, I want you to find out what you need to make this happen." he told the cook softly, "Whatever you need to buy, any equipment or supplies, permits, I don't care just let me know." The man started to cut in but Naruto cut him off again, "If anyone tries stopping you or causes any issues with you doing that, you just let me know and I'll speak with them."

The look in his eyes said that he'd do much more than just speak with them, "Ah… yeah choom, you got it." he could only agree, slightly worried for his own safety if he refused. The guy was a edgerunner so no telling what he'd do to him if he didn't. Rumor around the mega building said he was a good choom but he'd seen gonks with a crazy gleam in his eye his that before.

Naruto grinned, "Awesome, here let me send you my contact," his left eye lit up as he sent Aiko his info. The man got it and nodded, raising an eye at the icon that popped up but not commenting, anyone that kept that as his public holo image definitely wasn't wrapped too tight, "Hehehe, oh I can't wait, if your ramen is as good as this," he held up the now empty bowl, "then you and me are gonna be great chooms!"

Aiko chuckled nervously, "yeah choom, can't wait." He was starting to regret admitting that knew how to make it now. But hey, if the Merc was serious then… he'd have his own place and wouldn't have to be stuck slinging noodles over this jury-rigged cooktop. Hell… that was his dream, the more he thought about it the more he himself started to feel… hope?

"I'll talk to you later alright?" The blond called out, stepping over to a full trash can and stuffing the disposable plastic inside, packing it down as he did, "seriously though, let me know what you find out."

As the Merc left, Aiko plopped back down into his lawn chair with a thoughtful look on his face, maybe his dream wasn't out of his reach afterall. The blond was definitely… well maybe not insane, a bit crazy, but if he was willing to invest in him then maybe he'd have a chance to turn his life around even more.

-xXx-

Returning home to the Mega building, Gloria let out a long sign as she pulled off the street and into the parking garage of her building. Work had been a pain in the ass today, all paperwork and forms, accounting for inventory in the rig and doing all that she could not to strangle her supervisor. The bitch had been in a panic most of the day, according to Danny, the performance review went really bad and now she was a hair away from being fired.

But all of that was over for today, now she could go home and relax for a while. 'I can't remember the last time the halls were this clean,' she mused to herself, spotting a ragged looking man scrubbing at some graffiti on the wall next to the stairs

"H-hey Mr. Naruto," she heard the ragged man call out, making her eyes widen a bit as she spotted a blond head of hair coming up the steps, "N-new chrome?"

She didn't know why she felt nervous as the guy laughed, his fingers laced behind his head as he climbed up the last few steps, "Hey Randal, yep figured it was time. What're you doing?"

"W-well, I figured since w-we were cleaning, might as well get this too, y-you know?" The guy, Randal, was holding the scrubber nervously as he answered. "W-what do you think?"

The blond looked at the half cleaned patch of cement and grinned, "I think you're doing great work Randal." He patted him on the shoulder which made the nervous man smile a little. "Any problems while I was gone?"

"No… N-not really, those g-guys that used to e-extort us looked like they were s-sniffing around though," that made Gloria groan internally, those assholes were a pain.

Naruto huffed as well, "Don't worry about them Randel, just give me a call if they do anything stupid ok?" the man nodded slowly and Gloria watched for a moment as the blond gave the man a friendly slap on the back. He looked around and their eyes met, making her give him a little wave, "Hey Randel, I'll talk to you later dude, don't work too hard alright."

"Y-you got it M-Mr. Naruto,"

Walking over to the woman, Naruto gave her a toothy grin and laughed, "Hey Gloria, small world huh? What're you doing here?" He looked at her bright yellow EMT jacket and looked a little concerned, "No one's hurt are they?"

Looking down at her clothes, she felt a pang of embarrassment at the sight of her wrinkled work clothes, having forgotten to dry her other clothes the night before she had to wear these today even though she'd slept in them. Luckily they weren't filthy or anything so they didn't stink or stand out too much. "Oh, no nothing like that," she told him nodding towards one of the apartment doors a little further down, "I live here with my son David."

His eyes widened, "Wait, David's your son?" he questioned, "About this tall," he held his hand out a few inches shorter than him, "spiky hair, goes to 'Saka Academy?"

The EMT nodded, "Yep, that's my mijo," she told him with a smile and a small laugh, "David told me he met you and I gotta say, I didn't expect we'd meet again like this," The woman motioned to the building around them, "What are the chances huh?"

Naruto had to agree, he'd not forgotten about the woman and had hoped she'd give him a call one day so that he could repay her for helping him. Patching him up twice and going out of her way to help him each time. He still remembered her sneaking him that bounceback all those months ago when he woke up on the streets. Not only that but her offering to give him a ride in the ambulance to get him to Cami's ofrenda so he wouldn't miss it, had she not, he would've never made it there in time.

"Actually Gloria, I'm glad I ran into you." he admitted, "I wanted to say thank you, really, I know you went out of your way to help me out before and I truly do appreciate it. If you're up for it I'd love to treat you to drinks some time, maybe grab something to eat?"

Gloria blinked, 'Is he asking me out?' she thought while feeling her cheeks heat up a bit. It had been… a long time since she'd gone out, years even. Pretty sure David had only been a couple of years old at the time before she gave up and dedicated all her time to making sure he had all he needed.

Naruto saw the look on her face and grimaced before quickly covering it with a laugh, "It's fine if you don't want to though, just my way of saying thanks." he quickly regretted asking her like that, it sounded like he was asking her out. She probably thought he was a creep or something, after all, this was like the third time they'd ever spoken to each other right?

"No, no, I was just surprised," she admitted, before coming to a quick decision. "I think I'd love to go out for a drink," A date was the least she could do after robbing him back then right? And who knows, maybe they'll even have a pretty good time. "Are you free now?"

-xXx-

"You know, if you hadn't said anything I would've sworn that you were David's sister at least," Naruto chuckled as they crossed the road from Mega building H4 and headed towards the Manufactory right up the road. He had thought about heading to the Coyote Cojo with her but Gloria didn't want to go far since David would be getting home after a while.

She laughed it off, "believe it or not, he's my son," she told him as they walked down the sidewalk nearing the chain link fence that surrounded the warehouse turned shopping center. "Looking back it's hard to believe he's about to turn sixteen in a few months."

"He's fifteen?" Naruto gaped, a look of shock on his face which she didn't notice. He'd been under the impression that David was younger, thirteen or fourteen maybe but the kid was nearly sixteen? It must be because of poor nutrition, something he knew all too well during his younger days.

The EMT nodded, "yeah, I was pretty young when I had him… I won't say it was easy but…" She had a little smile on her face as she thought about her son, "He really changed my life for the better."

He kept pace with her as they turned the corner, still following the barbed wire topped fence to the front entrance of the Manufactory, "kids can do that I suppose."

"Do you have any kids?" As soon as the words left her mouth Gloria winced, remembering that he had lost someone not too long ago from what she could remember.

He made a little sound next to her, "I did… or was going to." The blond sighed next to her, "I didn't find out until after her memorial though…"

"I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"Nah it's all good," the pair reached the entrance and walked through the open gate, "you said there was a good place to grab a bite to eat here?" He questioned, changing the subject to which she was grateful.

"Yeah over this way." Nodding towards the right, she led him past a small stall to a slightly larger one with red banners hanging from the roof reading 'Nagami Market'. "Me and David stop here every now and then when we get a chance. "Hey Philip,"

Behind the counter was a thin black man wearing a stained apron over a brown and black synth leather vest wearing a truckers hat. He turned from the datapad in his hand towards the voice and nodded to them. "Ms. Martinez, nice seeing ya again. Who's your friend?"

"This is Naruto, moved in down the hall from me not too long ago." She told him before turning to the blond, "Naruto, this is Phillip, he makes a pretty good jambalaya but has the best Calavera Feliz in Arroyo,"

"Jambalaya?" Questioned the blond.

"Oh hell yeah choom, you wanna try it?" The man questioned making Naruto shrug after a moment and nod.

Gloria hopped up on the stool next to them and Naruto followed suit, "Sure, two jambalayas and two Calaveras." He told the man, sure he just ate a little while ago but he had to admit that whatever jambalaya was it smelled good but he had to ask, "What is it though?"

"It's a little bit of everything really," the woman told him as Phillip popped the caps off of two bottles and set them on the counter in front of them "thanks,"

"Moms always said that jambalaya is ancient french for 'fuck it, just toss in everything!" The man chuckled while walking away and returning with two bowls, "ain't no set ingredients really, just working with what you got on hand you feel me?"

Looking in, Naruto spotted several different ingredients all cooked together with rice. He took a sniff and didn't find it offensive, which made Gloria snicker as she took a bite herself. "Damn, it is pretty good," he admitted after the first bite.

"I told you," she grinned, making the cook nod and give a thumbs up. Naruto took his own beer and she took here's, "thanks for the meal," They clinked the bottles together and took a sip.

The two sat there enjoying the food and beer for a while, talking about random things that came to mind, laughing as they told each other funny things that happened, then laughing at him as the spice in the food finally caught up to him and made him start sweating. Gloria had to admit that she had a great time and wouldn't mind doing this again.

"Brad hey Brad!" Stopping what they were talking about, Gloria looked over his shoulder making Naruto glance over as well to see what it was. An older Asian man in a dirty tank top working the stall next to them was yelling at a pair of men messing with a bike a little ways away.

"Hey Darrell you good choom?" Phillip asked, leaning over his counter to look at the neighboring stall.

The man looked back over to them, an anxious look on his face, "Local kids been up my ass lately," Naruto looked between the two men and saw how worried the other vender was while Phillip grimaces and backed away, not wanting to get involved, even Gloria looked at the man with pity but didn't want to get tangled up with any drama.

The man looked around and turned to a man sitting at his own counter, "hey boss, you look pretty tough, mind backing me up with this? Drinks and food will be on me?"

The guy looked like a member of 6th street, dressed in camo and carrying a holstered pistol and only scoffed, dropping a few Eddie's on the counter, "Not my bike, not my problem"

The guy gave a defeated sigh and took off the clear yellow visor he wore, tossing it on the counter. "Oh well, can't force you anyway…" he took a deep breath and clenched his fists, "Ill just have to handle it myself."

Gloria felt bad for the guy, it looked like the two gonks were trying to blatantly steal the guy's bike in front of him. He looked afraid too, which made her feel worse for him but she couldn't do anything for him. If he got hurt she'd try and help him with first aid but that's as far as she could go.

As the guy started walking towards the two punks, she heard him calling out to the pair and just looked down at her beer.

Naruto looked at the two, seeing how both Gloria and Phillip seemed to deflate, which was a complete 180 to how the mood had been moments ago. Was no one really going to step up and help the guy?

"I'll be right back," he downed the rest of his Calavera and set it down on the counter top a little harder than he meant to, the force making the now empty bowl he'd just finished shake.

"What are you doing?" The redheaded EMT asked, looking at him in shock along with the cook as he pushed away from the counter and started to follow the older man.

He just turned mid step and shrugged to her, walking backwards "The right thing," She blinked at him, shocked. David said he'd been helping people around the mega building but was he actually going to do it without even being asked or asking for anything in return?

The man, Darrell made it over to the two punks messing with his bike a few moments before Naruto did, "You lost you damn minds!" He yelled at them as he stood in front of his bike, glaring at the one sitting on it, "get your grubby paws off my bike!"

From where he was, Naruto couldn't tell if these two were gangers or not, he couldn't even see a weapon on them other than a knife on each of them. The first wore a brown jacket with no shirt underneath, showing off some tattoos while the other had on a black samurai shirt with a studded vest on over it.

"This is a small price to pay for fucking treason!" The punk sitting on the bike growled out while the other one stood up from messing with the side of the bike, crossing his arms and glaring at the man.

Darell shook his head, "you still can't let go of that? My sister made a choice to better herself, you should be proud!"

"Proud!" The other guy mocked, stepping up to the older man and shoving him back "That bitch sold out to a fucking corp. Now it's time for payback!"

Darell wasn't ready for the shove and stumbled back nearly falling if it hadn't been for Naruto stepping up and catching him before he did. "What the?"

"I think that's enough you two," Naruto told the pair, steadying the man they'd pushed and stepping out from behind him

"The fuck you want? This ain't none of your biz so delta the fuck off somewhere." The one standing there took a step towards the orange wearing blond but wasn't prepared for Naruto to mirror his action and quickly backed up.

By now, several people around the shopping areas had noticed the commotion and had stopped to watch, waiting to see what would happen and some hoping to see a fight. Over by the stall, Gloria grimaced and hoped nothing bad would happen to the blond as she stayed back, getting ready to move and hide if guns were drawn.

Turning towards the other man partially behind him, Naruto asked, "You ok?" And got a nod in return, then turned to the other two, "I'm here to make sure no one does anything stupid, now why don't you tell me what your problem is, why are you trying to steal his bike?"

Brad sneered, "your pal here talked his sister into getting a job with Zetatech. Bitch just leaves and doesn't even say bye?" He looked like he was getting agitated and shifted his weight back on the bike, "weve been running these streets since we was kids, hacking street vending machines, fucking up corpos… s'what we lived for! Then this scopslinger talks her into working with those assholes? Fuck him and fuck that backstabbing cunt… and fuck you too!"

"Do you even hear yourself?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms and shaking his head, "You sound like a fucking child, so the fuck what if she decided to work for corpos? You think that justifies you stealing from him," he stopped to point his thumb at the vendor before glaring at the guy on the bike. "Well you know what? I stubbed my toe this morning and by your logic, I'd be justified in breaking both of you in half right?" The two glanced at each other, "yeah sounds fucked up coming from someone else huh? Now get your ass off his bike and apologize,"

One of the closer gonks watching what was happening snickered.

The one standing beside the bike spat at his feet, making Naruto look down at the wet spot, while he sneered "or what?"

Still looking down, Naruto's eyes slowly raised to look at them both, "Guys, there's two ways this can go now. One… you-" he locked eyes with Brad sitting on the bike, "will get off that bike then both of you are going to tell this man you're sorry for being a pair of dumbfucks and after that I don't give a damn what you do." He cocked his head, making his neck crack, "or two, I make you get your ass off his bike and then you'll get on your knees and beg this man to forgive you after I'm done with you."

The one standing glanced around nervously but his choom only started getting red in the face, "You care so fuckin much about rat-fuck traitor!?" He snarled, slamming the bikes handlebars to the side, making the whole bike shift as he did, "Fine, I wasn't planning on dusting this bitch but fuck it, you two can die together,"

"W-wait what!?" Darrell cried out in shock, staggering back in fear as the man climbed off the back. Naruto was moments away from stepping forward to put both men on the ground but the other man stepped up and blocked his friend.

"Brad, wait!" He called out while trying to keep his choom from doing something stupid, struggling a bit against him to hold him back. "Yo dude isn't that the guy everyone's talking 'bout?" Brad stopped trying to force his way past him and looked at the man with a confused look. "Dude look at him, blond guy wearing too much orange."

Naruto sweatdropped, glancing down at his orange and black pants and vest, 'too much orange?' he looked fucking awesome, what did they know.

Brads unnamed choom continued, "He beat that juiced up bitch Bess in the ring without even trying, he'll snap us in half." Brad suddenly lost his steam and looked a bit more nervous, tossing his hands up in surrender.

"Hey look choom, I'm ah… sorry about all that shit I said," the guy but out, looking at the blond who raised an eyebrow and shook his head, nodding towards the street vendor. Brad and his choom looked like they wanted to be anywhere else and choked out an apology.

"You're sorry for…?" Naruto cut in, smirking at the pained look he got in return as they grumbled.

"I'm sorry for being a dumbfuck," one started with the other repeating after him, the pair of them looking ashamed and defeated.

Turning to the vendor, who looked shocked and close to laughing, Naruto asked "Is that good enough for you?" To which the man nodded, "alright, you two just… fuck off,"

"Come on dude let's delta,"

Darrell let out a small laugh as the two gonks ran away, nearly knocking down a passerby who'd stopped to see what was going on while several of the other onlookers laughed at the whole situation.

"Thanks Boss," the older man chuckled, walking up next to the blond and slapping him on the shoulder, "That should teach 'em a lesson they won't forget. I owe you one though, how 'bout I cover you and your outputs meal huh?

Naruto coughed, nearly choking on his own spit, "ah she's not my output dude," he denied only to get a knowing smirk in return from the man, "No, really,"

"Sure, whatever you say choom," After all, what kinda gonk would help a random person on the streets if it wasn't just to look good in front of his girl? Naruto grumbled and ignored the man as he nudged him in the side with his elbow.

*BEEP*

His grumbling was interrupted by his holo letting him know he got a message, his left eye lighting up as it displayed Regina Jones' name.

[Got word that some Maelstrom gonks are trying to offload some military hardware, gotta be your missing convoy. Your hunch was right, they're hold up in the Northside, the old abandoned All Foods plant. Deets are attached.]

-xXx-

To be continued…

-xXx-

I really hope you guys liked the new chapter, really wanted to have it be even longer and get into the Militech stuff but that would make the wait a little bit too long to me. I really wanted to post this as soon as I could lol.

But I somehow managed to hit 200k words and I'm not really sure how I did that to tell you the truth. Thinking back to when I was in school and first start writing it's amazing to think that my goals were like 1k at best for a chapter, then 2k to 5k. I used to think a story with 20k words was an accomplishment for me because it took me so long to do.

Really, thank you for reading this and as always I truly hope you like it, I plan on seeing this through to the end so look forward to more. Feel free to review if you'd like, I really appreciate and enjoy them or if you'd like to pm me feel free to. I've gotten a lot better at checking them lol.

And as always, shout-out to AizenTheGoat and his discord. Love you guys.